PAKISTANI WOMAN GETS NEW NOSE AFTER 32YRS

A Pakistani woman has been given a new nose more than 32 years after she was attacked by her razor-wielding husband.
Allah Rakhi, 48, has spoken out after successfully undergoing an operation to replace her nose, which was sliced off when she was just 16.
Forced into a brutal marriage while still a teenager, Allah eventually fled the marital home - but her husband caught her and mutilated her in a fit of rage.

Ready to live life again: Allah Rakhi had her nose sliced off by her husband when she was just 16. More than 30 years later, she finally underwent surgery to have her features restored

The issue of female mutilation was highlighted last week when the plight of Afghan teenager Aesha Mohammadzai - who also had her nose cut off - made international headlines.
Allah's successful operation at a Pakistan hospital was carried out with the help of the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF).

 

‘When I found out I had to live the rest of my life without a nose I wanted to die,’ Allah said.
‘I couldn’t imagine it. But now I am so happy. When I saw my new nose I just wept and wept.’
Allah was just a teenager when she married farmer Gulam Abbas, who was the same age, as part of an arranged marriage.
‘I knew of Gulam for many years as we’d grown up in the same area, but I had never spoken to him until after we were man and wife,’ Allah said.
She was a very simple, uneducated teenager who had only been taught to run a home and be a good wife. But married life was not what she had hoped for.

Cover story: Afghan Aesha Mohammadzai had her nose cut off by her parents-in-law. Her story recently made the cover of Time magazine

‘From the moment we started to live as man and wife I could tell he had no respect for me or what we had married into,’ Allah added.
‘We argued almost straight away and he always forced me in bed. I also knew he was doing immoral things with other unmarried women in my area.’
But when Allah went on to have her children, son Azhar Abbas, and daughter Uzma Shahzadi, she wanted so desperately to make her marriage work.
She refused to moan to her parents. And even though many people know of Gulam’s lifestyle it’s a part of their culture to put up with it and carry on.
However, 32 years ago, Allah remembers her husband spending the summer day hanging around the home feeling ill.
‘Even though he was moaning of a fever his brother made him go to work and plough the fields,’ she remembered.
‘So when he came home he wasn’t in a good mood. I stupidly asked him why he bothered going to work if was so ill and he just beat me.’
As soon as he left the house that evening, Allah decided she’d had enough and tried to escape to her parent’s house.
But as she was walking to the bus stand she saw Gulam sitting in a barber’s and he spotted her.
Terrified, she ran. But Gulam caught up with her and cornered her in the forest.  
He pinned her down and suddenly flashed a razor blade – one she assumed he had picked up at the barber’s.
Before Allah could do anything, she remembers him slicing off her nose.
She can recall him shouting: ‘I’m going to kill you and I’ll confess all to the police. Our children will live with someone else.’
But thankfully Allah’s screams drew attention and locals came running.
Allah remembers falling in and out of consciousness as tension grew around her. Neighbours tried to help her to hospital. But Gulam stopped them afraid of police tracing his crime.
Eventually, Allah was carried home, screaming in agony.

Back to normal: Allah says the worst thing about her injury was the fact that people would stare and point at her

Neighbours managed to call a doctor but he refused to treat her other than prescribe some sleeping pills for fear of the police and the severity of the crime.
‘That night is a complete blur,’ she said. ‘I can only remember patches. The pain was excruciating, I remember feeling numb to it in the end as I lay hour after hour with no help.’
Eventually, 24 hours later, word reached Allah’s parents and they marched Allah straight to the civil hospital, in Wazirabad.
Allah remained in the hospital for three months.
‘There were some very sad days. I found it hard to go on,’ she said. ‘But I had to find the strength to carry on for my children.’
Gulam Abbas, 50, was eventually arrested and jailed before he managed to beg for a pardon and was released a year later, under Pakistan law.
Within months Allah had a divorce granted and tried to carry on with her life.
Six years later she happily married Javid Iqbal but he later died and Allah found herself alone again.
‘It was hard to live with no nose,’ she added. ‘There were many things I couldn’t do, like smell, taste, breathe properly. But most of all I found it hard to go out, people were always staring and pointing.’
Many cases of violence against women in Pakistan go unpunished. Human rights groups report that Pakistani women suffer severe discrimination and widespread domestic violence. They’re constantly calling on the government to revive efforts to criminalise the act.
After many years of suffering in silence, Allah, with the help of her daughter, turned to the Acid Survivors Foundation, who assist many women affected by domestic violence in developing countries.  
And on April 2, this year, Allah went into surgery, surrounded by her friends and family, at Benazir Bhutto Hospital, outside Islamabad, in Pakistan.
Surgeon, Professor Hamid Hussain, took flesh and bone from her rib cage and abdomen and created a new nose.
‘All I remember from that day is waking up and seeing everyone smiling down at me. It was a happy day,’ she said.
Allah now lives with her son and daughter-in-law. But with her new-found confidence thanks to her new nose she would like to get a job and buy her own place and regain some independence.
‘I just want to live the rest of my life in peace now. I never want to marry again, I just want happiness for myself and family,’ she said.